The world of Razer laptops is about to change. With 14-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch models staying around for the foreseeable future, CES 2023 introduced two new Blade devices heading to the market this year. The new lineup will now boast a Razer Blade 16 and 18, the latter model offering a massive 18-inch display in a form factor similar to its 17.3-inch predecessor. That means there’s a Razer laptop for everyone out there somewhere, and we’re helping you fight the right machine.
Razer has long produced some of the best gaming laptops on the market, with slimline chassis’ and highly powerful insides offering up excellent machines for both gaming and media creation. However, these beasts don’t come cheap – in fact they’re some of the most expensive rigs on the shelves these days. You’re certainly getting the luxury that you’re paying for, though, with gorgeous displays, excellent engineering, and that classic svelt design language – this is a brand for those looking to invest in a long-term device.
The good news, though, is that 2022’s offerings are sticking around for another year, which means we’ll likely see their lofty MSRPs dwindle a little over the course of the next few months. While it’s still early days for recent releases, anyone after a cheap Razer laptop would do well to keep an eye on last year’s models (as well as 2021’s offerings as well).
We’ve rounded up all our favorite Razer gaming laptops right here, after weeks of testing across both work and play.
The best Razer laptops available now
Technically, yes, the Razer Blade 18 is the best Razer laptop you can buy right now. That doesn’t necessarily mean we would, though. If you’re chasing big bucks performance in that classically svelt Razer chassis, with a massive 18-inch display to enjoy it all on, it’s a no-brainer. The Intel i9-13950HX / RTX 4090 configuration we tested absolutely sang considering it was running in a machine just 21mm thick. However, compared to other machines packing a thicker footprint, the numbers just weren’t there – troubling considering the spec we tested came in at $4,499.99.
This is an incredibly impressive gaming laptop, with blistering speeds and an impossibly skinny form factor – but it’s a mad scientist’s machine.
Razer Blade 18 review
This is where the problem with the Razer Blade 18 lies. It’s an incredibly impressive machine, posting numbers that would have made the brand’s previous generations sweat and boasting a gorgeous unibody build. Who exactly is going to be able to afford the top shelf components to reach these numbers is another question. It’s certainly remarkable that such a skinny machine can harness this power, but others just do it so much better by not prioritizing the waistline. Asus has a series of equally, if not more, powerful gaming laptops on the shelves this year, which can pump out far more impressive numbers while piling on just a little extra thickness. The majority of players would like to keep their options open for the next few years of games, rather than spending big on the luxury Apple-like experience of Razer’s Blade 18.
Similarly, that massive screen is all-encompassing, but is lacking the Mini LED technology of its rivals. This new screen type has taken the gaming laptop world by storm this generation, offering greater contrast and deeper, richer blacks. It’s absent here, replaced by a cheaper IPS panel. Of course, that’s likely to avoid bloating the price even further, but there’s no option to bust the bank for those who want to.
All this is to say, the Blade 18 is absolutely the best Razer laptop we’ve had our hands on so far. It’s just not likely to be the best for you.
Read more: Razer Blade 18 review
The 2022 Razer Blade 15 lives up to the name of its ancestors; providing cutting edge components in a super portable chassis – and looking particularly good while doing it. This certainly isn’t your everyman Razer laptop. With a top price tag reaching $4,000 and some seriously premium gear under the hood, the Razer Blade 15 will appeal to enthusiasts far more than the everyday player. However, if you’re looking to invest in a machine that can sink its teeth into some serious PC gaming, this is the model for you.
That 4K 144Hz display is certainly an outlier even in this high-end market, and the overall build quality and design can’t be argued with either.
Razer Blade 15 review
We were incredibly impressed to see Shadow of the Tomb Raider flying at well over 60fps in 4K on our RTX 3080 Ti / i9-12900H testing unit, though of course more demanding games did struggle to break past 45fps in High settings. Still, fiddling with some of the more tasking visual effects did bring us closer to buttery smooth 4K gameplay than we’ve seen on similar models. It’s easy to wax lyrical about the performance under the hood when you’re spending $4,000 on Nvidia and Intel’s bleeding edge components, though. Perhaps even more impressive is the classically slimline chassis housing them all.
Razer didn’t need to add to the Blade 15’s footprint to get all this gear under the keyboard. In fact, with additional ventilation in place, this slimline rig still manages to offer up a comfortable, portable experience – even with all that power at your fingertips. That’s why this is the best Razer laptop currently available; it marries the power of a far chunkier rig with that suave design language that so many have fallen in love with over the years.
Still, if you’re not looking for a long-term investment, the Razer Blade 15 isn’t for you. In fact, with a lofty $2,000+ price tag even on an RTX 3060 rig, there will be very few everyday players who will be able to draw the value they need from their cash here. The Razer Blade 14 does make a far easier case for its MSRP, offering up a smaller starting price that will appeal to far more players, even if it’s not technically the top dog.
Read more: Razer Blade 15 review
The Razer Blade 14 is one of the top gaming laptop options out there, let alone in Razer’s own category. Hitting the market just before the slimline design revolution took over, we found that the smaller form factor made this machine an excellent everyday workhorse, while always offering some excellent gaming performance in its back pocket. We were impressed by the high-end configurations on offer here – packing an RTX 3080 GPU and a Ryzen 9 5900HX processor into this chassis is no mean feat.
It’s incredible to think that there’s so much oomph and beastly power in this tiny thing.
Razer Blade 14 review
While we did find that some of that horsepower felt a little wasted on the smaller 14-inch screen, and the heat produced was considerable, being able to transport this level of gaming prowess this easily was always exciting. We were hitting 71 fps on The Division 2 at high settings, and 85fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to boot. Very few gaming laptops can boast that kind of power in this form factor.
The matte-black aesthetic keeps things subtle, all belying the incredible performance under the hood. Sure, the Blade 15 and Blade 17 are more instantly recognizable as gaming-specific machines, and will offer slightly better performance thanks to the extra space for cooling.
However, Razer gaming laptops are all about that ease of use. In the same way that the MacBook previously dominated over clunkier, but (before M1) arguably more powerful, PCs, Razer puts its experience at the forefront, and in all the brand’s rigs we’ve tested, the Blade 14 represents this design ethos the best.
Read more: Razer Blade 14 review
There’s a new Razer Blade 17 in town, and 2022’s instalment offers up an incredibly powerful machine stacked for both gaming and media editing. Of course, these rigs don’t come cheap but if you’re looking to invest in the biggest and baddest of them all, the latest Blade is your best bet. Not only are you getting the latest components under the hood (an i7-12800H processor and RTX 3080 Ti graphics card in our test unit), but everything we’ve come to love about the best Razer laptops remains.
That means a sleek matte black casing, excellent attention to detail, and a big bright screen. All of that is packed into a slimline form factor that belies the sheer power inside. Of course, there is a Razer tax here – cheaper machines are available with the same components inside (interestingly, though, prices are still pretty high even in cheaper models). However, the durability and engineering on offer here will suit those looking for that lick of luxury.
Shocking exactly nobody, the 2022 Razer Blade 17 eats benchmarks for breakfast and powers through the latest games at 1440p, even without the assistance of Nvidia’s nifty DLSS tech.
Razer Blade 17 review
There’s something special about how well everything sings here. A gorgeous display manages to keep everything crisp and smooth, and we were even impressed with the array of speakers lining each side. The power of this audio means we didn’t feel the need to throw on a gaming headset during any of our testing – a testament, too, to the fan control in this larger chassis.
All of those external features would mean nothing if it weren’t for the excellent handling of the Razer Blade 17 inside. Thankfully, this rig performed exactly as expected in our stress tests, posting impressive Fire Strike and Time Spy scores (25,484 and 12,244 respectively). Real-world tests also managed to keep us in the high 90s across a range of games, with Red Dead Redemption clocking in at an excellent 90fps in Ultra settings.
Read more: Razer Blade 17 review
Because it doubles down on Razer’s biggest strength – industrial design – the Blade Stealth 13 forgoes a lot of the usual spec bumps in favor of implementing a plethora of seemingly minuscule tweaks to its appearance. For example, the new 4.9mm ‘Micro Edge’ bezels are 60% narrower than that of its predecessor, thereby blessing the low-profile laptop with borders around the display that make it look as contemporary as it is. Zooming out, the chassis at large is constructed using a high-grade aluminum material carved out from a single block of metal, making it all the more durable as a result.
Although the base model is still limited to on-chip Intel graphics, two higher-priced tiers now exist sporting Nvidia GPUs. You might not find an RTX card here but you can still hook the Blade Stealth up to a Razer Core external fun box if you can’t live without the retina-burning sensation of 4K graphics being ray traced in real-time.
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New Razer laptops 2023: what’s on the way?
Razer announced a whole wad of new gaming laptops at CES 2023, and we’re just a month away from the next generation’s release. Alongside RTX 40-Series graphics cards and Intel’s new 13th generation processors, we’ve got new 16-inch and 18-inch devices heading to market. All in, that means 2023’s spread of Razer laptops includes a 15-inch, 16-inch, and 18-inch model, with each device bringing its own flair.
The Razer Blade 15 is sticking around, and has been upgraded to include Nvidia RTX 40-Series graphics cards up to RTX 4070 and an Intel Core i7-13800H processor. This is a polish for the perennially popular machine, rather than a full reboot – and specs aren’t as impressive as those found on the larger releases. Both models in this generation will ship with a 240Hz refresh rate QHD panel, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD.
The Blade 16 is where things get interesting. The middle child benefits from the luxuries of remaining small and portable while also offering the power of graphics cards up to the RTX 4090 and an Intel i9-13950HX processor. Not only is that cutting edge tech going to push your games to the extreme, but Razer is also debuting its Dual-Mode MiniLED display here as well. We’ve seen the MiniLED portion of this spec in this year’s Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 and it certainly has us excited for future implementations. By reducing the size of each LED under the display panel, screen manufacturers are able to pack a lot more of them in – that means better contrast, local dimming zones, and rich, deep blacks. Razer takes things a step further with the Blade 16, though. A ‘Dual-Mode MiniLED display’ allows users to switch between UHD+ 120Hz and FHD+ 240Hz resolutions at will. That means crystal clear visuals during content creation or slower titles, and faster responses for more intense games.
Then we come to the behemoth. The Blade 18 will offer the largest screen we’ve seen on a Razer laptop yet. The key here, though, is that the 18-inch display will sit inline with the general size of yesteryear’s 17-inch laptops. Still, this is being touted as a desktop replacement, with a plethora of ports, RTX 4090 GPUs, Intel i9 HX processors, and six THX Spatial audio speakers. While it doesn’t sport the Dual-Mode Mini-LED display of the Blade 16 (instead offering a stock 240Hz QHD+ screen), this really is one for those on the fence between laptop and PC.
Razer laptops FAQ
How we test gaming laptops
We review a massive number of gaming laptops, so trimming that list down to the best Razer models requires standardized tests and plenty of play time. We follow the same steps to ascertain where a PC sits on the market every time, in an approach that combines industry standard GPU, CPU, and SSD tests with real-world game performance and everyday usability.
We use 3D Mark, Cinebench, PC Mark 10, and Crystal Disk Mark to give us some baseline benchmarks on core performance. Then, we run a series of framerate tests on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Metro Exodus, The Division 2, and Red Dead Redemption 2 to determine how that performance manifests in actual gameplay.
Of course, we also live with these devices so we’re playing all the hottest games on each gaming laptop we test and checking how well they slot into our setups, everyday work life, and portability needs as well.
You can find more information on how we review the products we recommend in our full Hardware Policy, and we’re also showing you exactly how we test gaming laptops for more details as well.
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If you’re not sold on Razer, be sure to check out the best Alienware laptops and the best Asus gaming laptops we’ve tested so far.